March 26, 2007

Pollinated Here & There

The Guardian's Philip Hoare pens an interesting article about the Turnstall whale, widely believed to be the "real life" inspiration for Melville's Moby Dick and whose largely entact skeleton will go on display next week in London:

In 1825, a huge bull sperm whale stranded on the beach at Tunstall, north of Hull. Crowds gathered to gawp at the monster thrown up from the abyss. A medieval act - still in force today - decreed that any whale, dolphin, porpoise or sturgeon washed up on English shores is the property of the monarch. But on this stretch of coastline, that right devolved to the Lord Paramount of the Seigniory of Holderness, Sir Clifford Constable. And so the whale was taken to nearby Burton Constable Hall, where its skeleton was articulated as a sort of gothic folly in the grounds.

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Stanford professor Carol Schloss has settled her suit against the James Joyce Estate and Joyce's batcrazy grandson Stephen: "As part of an agreement reached this week, the Joyce estate said it would not sue scholar Carol Schloss for copyright infringement if the books, manuscripts and other documents she wants to cite both in print and on a Web site were only made available in the United States." You can read more about the case here.

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A PhD candidate at the University of Leeds has disproven a widely held belief that erotic literature consumption in the 18th century was a solitary affair. Jenny Skipp's research shows that "the erotic texts were read aloud everywhere from alehouses to coffee shops." More here.

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Hugh Grant plans on joining the ever-growing list of actor-turned-writer, but he's concerned that his celebrity status might make things a little too easy for him, so he says, "When I've finished it, I'll send it to an editor, anonymously, in order for it to be judged objectively. Because we all know about editors don't we? I could copy out the Yellow Pages and they would still publish it simply because I'm a celebrity.This way at least, my manuscript could be turned down by some 21-year-old publisher and I would walk away totally humiliated."

Not sure this qualifies as a "school book ban" shocker considering the writer being banned, but a Texas school has removed Henry Miller's name from a list of authors approved for research assignments. Here's a, um, taste of Tropic of Cancer {link to playboy.com. No nuddie photos but url might be an IT red flag}.